The present invention relates to facilities for vending consumer products, services and automobile fuels. Specifically, a retail facility is described which enhances the shopper's ease of purchasing consumer products and services and automobile fuel from a single facility.
In my previous patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,111,282; 4,189,031; and 4,169,521, I described a drive-in, single stop, nonautomated shopping facility capable of vending numerous retail products, services and fuel to a customer while the customer remained at a fixed purchase station, e.g., sitting within a parked automobile. The drive-in facility of the aforementioned patents permitted, during the fueling of an automobile, the vending of all weekly purchase requirements for the average household, such as groceries, beverages, bank service, bill paying, laundry/dry cleaning, fast food, and other commodities and services (hereinafter referred to individually and collectively as "merchandise"). The type of merchandise offered, larger order size, volume of customers, low percent labor, store attractiveness, and low shrinkage/losses, improved the total profitability of the drive-in shopping facility beyond those facilities which merely sold fuel or some other single product or service, or which required the individual to depart from his automobile to select and pay for other commodities.
The shopping facility described in these earlier patents, and the method of vending which they implemented, was so successful with the consuming public that the prior nonautomated facility could not handle, on a continuous basis, the number of customers who sought to purchase both gasoline and household commodities. Lines would occasionally form in the street leading to the facility, causing traffic problems and complaints from the responsible traffic officials. Also, during peak operating hours, the customers using the nonautomated facility of my prior patents encountered delays as a result of the fuel attendant's inability to man the gasoline pumps as well as make the required transfer of goods from the facility to the automobile.
Thus, the market success of the nonautomated facility described in these earlier patents created bottlenecks which interfered with customer throughput. In time, these bottlenecks, which were anticipated to a lesser degree, became so severe that they discouraged patronization of the facility by customers. The present invention obviates these problems.